Cross two off the gearhead bucket list

From left, Marshall Myles, Rich Patterson and David George in the underground parking area of the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart, Germany -- a bucket-list desire come true.

Rich Patterson, Driving

A visit to the Porsche Museum and hot laps at the Nurburgring among friends

by
Rich Patterson | December 7, 2016

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STUTTGART, Germany — You know you’re a car nerd when you park in the underground at the Germany Porsche Museum and it takes you over 30 minutes to get upstairs. A storage section in the parkade was open, so my two companions and I spent over half an hour ogling the rare eye candy on public display, among them Porsche Martini Racing 930s, air-cooled 911s and even an old 944 Turbo. We hadn’t even made it upstairs and we were already running around like giddy school boys.

We are three friends — Marshall Myles, David George and myself — finally taking a bucket-list trip talked about for 15 years. We connected in the mid-Nineties at Roots Canada’s head office, and despite being on our second or third careers since leaving the company, we remained close through our work bond and car obsession.

The Porsche Museum is a 100-million Euro architectural showpiece across the street from the automaker’s factory that rotates 80 curated exhibits drawn from a 300-vehicle inventory. This must-visit museum has an amazing array of rare development, production and racing cars associated with Porsche’s iconic history. We toured on the final day of the four-month long exhibit 40 Years of the Transaxle, which paid tribute to water-cooled, front-engined 924, 928, 944, and 968 models.

As a counter-point to the exhibit, the last car we visited in the spiral museum layout — and the one we lingered over longest — is the Porsche 918 hypercar. All 918 units of the 887-horsepower — by way of a V8 engine working with two electric motors — limited edition were pre-sold prior to production. A few re-sales are available now with prices in the US$1.6 to US$2M range.

For lunch, we enjoyed the museum’s Christophorus restaurant — a super-stylish bistro overlooking the Porsche campus.

After lunch we headed for the Porsche Factory Tour — included when you opt for European delivery on your factory-order — but with a one-year waitlist for average tourists. Luckily a contact a Toronto’s Pfaff Porsche went to bat and arranged the tour for us.

The factory tour is a no-cameras, no-smartphone affair, so only words can describe what we saw. From the grey-gloss floors to the just-in-time robotic inventory fulfillment to the ultra-sterile engine assembly room, it is all you would expect in a modern auto factory.

Our favourite area was the final two-floor, 400-metre assembly line where empty body shells are married to chassis and a complete car is driven off the line in less than seven hours. All Porsche models are mixed on this same production line except SUVs, which are assembled in nearby Leipzig. We were unfortunately barred from the final assembly area because of a rumoured 991 ‘Version Two’ development that was not-for-tourist-eyes.

As fun as the Porsche visit was, nothing could have prepared us for the next-day: hot laps at the fabled Nurburgring.

Stuttgart to Nurburg is almost 400 kilometres, but on Germany’s autobahn we cruised at 180km/h and arrived by noon at RSR Rentals (rsrnurburg.com). Before hitting the track, we sat for a mandatory 30-minute briefing that uses video and epic fails to scare the crap out of you. We were warned that each 10-foot section of destroyed track barrier will cost 1,000 Euros to repair and that practice on virtual versions of Nurburgring (such as iRacing.com or PS4 Forza) cannot prepare you for blind corners and whoop-de-do sections where cars can get airborne.

One of the more troubling POV videos shows a Mini Cooper S rounding a blind corner (there’s over 40 of them on the Ring) at about 150km/h. Suddenly we see a car against the barrier, two motorcyclists in the grass and — most shocking — two dopey drivers stopped in the middle of the track. Thankfully, the driver deftly maneuvers around the cars and saves the day. And some lives.

RSR broke the news that due to cool, wet track conditions our reserved BMW M4 Competitions — 400 hp, rear-wheel drive — were grounded. Instead, we would pilot the Renault Megan RS — hot hatchbacks with 260-hp mated to six-speed manuals The three of us would take turns in two Megane’s and split 10 laps — getting three laps each, with one bonus lap.

As the only track virgin in the group, I was pleased to be in the more forgiving Megane, which turned out to be an ideal match for the track layout and my driving skills. The car could essentially be rowed between 3rd and 4th, (5th on straightaways) and it seemed to always be in the meatiest part of its torque curve.

We travelled at 60 to 90km/h through the curves and topped out at about 160km/h on the straights, taking about 15 minutes to lap the track. We were constantly being passed by GT3RS’s, M3s, McLarens, and Aventadors. We even witnessed a spectacular track-closing crash by an Audi R8.

After taking our last lap at 5:30 p.m., we headed back to Stuttgart in time for a late farewell dinner in old-towne. We toasted over pizza, pasta and beer to a great trip and great friendship.

As one of my favourite t-shirts says: ‘All you need is great friends and a full tank of gas.’

Porsches at play on the fabled racetrack.

NURBURGRING BY THE NUMBERS

Between the First and Second World Wars, the racetrack was built as a make-work project for the economically depressed Eiffel region around the town of Nurburg. The course was finished in 1927 and today is formatted as two tracks: the more famous 21-kilometre Nordschleife track; and the more modern five-kilometre Grand-Prix track.

Both tracks are open to the public. The longer, more popular Nordschleife has no modern safety features, over 75 corners (80 per cent of them blind) and massive elevation changes.

You may share the track with a Porsche 993 GT3RS, a family in their Opel Wagon, a motorcycle rider and even RVs have been spotted diving into the corners.

There are road rules to follow for everyone’s safety but crashes are commonplace.

Even if you aren’t headed onto the track, the paddock, restaurant and parking areas are a petrol-heads dream. It’s like a daylong car show interspersed with full-throttle shrieks down the straightaway.